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Check out this beginner’s guide to layer masks in Photoshop

Layer masks are one of the most wonderful and powerful tools that have ever been added to Photoshop’s repertoire. Trying to imagine what life was like before them just seems kind of light a nightmare. I use them almost daily in my work with Photoshop, whether it be for photography projects or images to illustrate articles here on DIYP.

But they’re a little confusing for those still learning Photoshop, and there’s a lot more to them than most people think, too. Fortunately, landscape and commercial photographer Mark Duffy has put together this handy 17-minute guide going over everything you ever needed to know to get started with layer masks.

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This is what Photoshop’s 27 different layer blending modes do

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Most of us will probably only ever use a handful of layer blending modes in Photoshop. Normal, Darken, Multiply, Screen, and maybe Overlay. This mostly down to the fact that what they do is quite obvious. We often ignore many of the other blend modes because when we scroll through them they don’t seem to be of much use at all. But mostly because we don’t understand how they work.

In this video, Unmesh Dinda at PiXimperfect walks us through all 27 of Photoshop’s layer blending modes and exactly how they work. These blend modes don’t just exist for layers, though. They often come up as an option for Photoshop’s various tools like the brush, clone stamp and healing brush tools. So it’s useful to know what they do.

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How I layered elements to create a magic light

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For those of you who don’t know who Joel Robison is, kindly crawl out from under your rock and check out his work. (Is there internet under your rock? HOW ARE YOU EVEN READING THIS!?!?) … Joel is an absolute POWERHOUSE of talent, creativity, imagination, encouragement and he is just an all around super nice guy. Joel and a couple of my other photographer friends Kristina and Anton were visiting for a weekend so obviously we did multiple photo shoots. Duh.

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Watch New York skyline “play music” in this incredible layered timelapse

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Just when you think you’ve seen it all when it comes to timelapse, Julian Tryba creates something you want to watch over and over again. A few years after making his fantastic Boston Layer-Lapse, Julian has created one of New York City. This time, there were 10 times more layers, so he came up with the solution to automate the process.

The 2:40 minute timelapse took Julian 22 Trips to New York, 352 hours of filming, and 232,000 photos taken. He paid over $1,400 paid only in parking fees and drove almost 10,000 miles. Was it worth it? Oh yes, it was!

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How to reduce noise and more easily work with “Blend if” layer sliders in Photoshop CC

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Photoshop’s layer blending options are some of its most powerful tools but also one of its most frustrating, particularly the “Blend if” sliders.  Designed to help you blend a layer with those below it based on the luminance of colour channels, actually seeing what’s effect it’s having on a layer often can be difficult.

In this video from the f64 Academy, Blake Rudis shows us a technique for dealing with “Blend if” to be able to easily see what part of the image our layer is covering, and applies it to some noise reduction.

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Step by step guide for Composite Product Photography

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Usually, I prefer to get stuff in camera (even if it means light painting my subject). But sometimes Lighting or space limitations will make getting the picture in-camera hard or simply not worth the effort. When such situation strikes go for a composite. If you only have little gear, this technique will also help you get a more professional look in your images.

To demonstrate this point, I used my girlfriends Macbook air and my Fuji Xe-2.

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New Timelapse Technique In Boston Layer-Lapse Shows Us Daylight In The Middle Of The Night

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Photographer and filmaker, Julian Tryba, is a big proponent of the do-it-yourself movement, having gone so far as to build a robot that follows people around and photographs them using information sent from their smartphones. But, that robot thing? It’s cool and all but, for Tryba that was college play. Now, he’s expanding his creativity through innovation by developing an interesting new way to edit timelapse footage. Drawing a little inspiration from Einstein’s relative theory, Tryba is using a technique he’s dubbed “layer-lapse” that’s similar to timeslice photography.[Read More…]

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